Thursday 27 August 2015

Summer adventures

And with that, summer is nearly over!

It has been a great couple of months full of adventures. First up was a month of writing - suddenly I feel as if the book is starting to come together. I just have chapter 4 to finish, although chapter 2 continues to drive me a bit crazy! Migrating Modernist Performance: British Theatrical Travels through Russia will be out with Palgrave MacMillan next year. I've also been working on the new Professional Wrestling and Performance edited collection for Routledge which, all being well, will also come out next year. I have a million other projects on the go at the moment and one of tonight's major jobs is to work out how on earth it is all going to get done!

As usual for the Wardens, the second half of the summer was taken up with an exciting trip. This year we went back to America (2nd of 3 Stateside trips for me this year!), starting in LA, driving up the coast to Santa Barbara, Big Sur, Carmel Valley, San Francisco, Sonora and finally back for a couple of days in New York before flying home. It was an amazing trip, full of new experiences, including bathing at Esalen at 2am, seeing the final ever Rush gig, visiting Yosemite, flying under the Golden Gate Bridge in a helicopter (yes, I know, right?), landing on Alcatraz, riding on a stagecoach, watching the Mets, getting tickets for On the Town (my first on-Broadway musical) and seeing enormous trees, swimming in incredible oceans, dragging D round loads of art galleries, eating at awesome restaurants, wandering amongst amazing architecture and indulging in way too much ice-cream.

Here are a couple of my favourite photos (typically, D has hundreds and will probably be a bit grumpy about the ones I've chosen to put up here!)


Yosemite Valley looking down!

Me looking rather wistful at the Big Sur


'Welcome to the Rock' from the helicopter


'Welcome to the Rock' as we arrived


The amazing nighttime sky in Sonora. This was the view from our house!


New York - memorial to 9/11 

We travelled on four planes (Le Compagnie x2, Delta, JetBlue) and all left on time (just about) and were great. We stayed in seven different places, mostly Air BnB which I recommend to everyone as a brilliant, cost-effective and exciting way of travelling. We walked so far that D has to throw away his £10 walking shoes. I read two books: The Artisan Soul by Erwin McManus (great and pretty inspiring) and H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald (which I loved).

All in all, a great summer. And now it is back to it. There is a lot going on in the family right now (including the birth of our new wee niece!) but I am also back to writing and sorting before term begins.

And the big news is...*drum roll*...next Tuesday I will be starting a new job at De Montfort University, Leicester. I'm enjoyed my time in Lincoln but I'm definitely ready for a new start, and am looking forward to meeting the students and hanging our with my new colleagues.

Hope everyone is doing great!

CSW